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06/21/2013

Seven workers die in Confined Space Accident at Corona Brewery

Well, my
confined space blog may have slowed down a bit in the past couple months due to other ongoing
work, but unfortunately the confined space fatalities have not slowed down...

In April,
seven workers were killed in a tank that was undergoing maintenance and
cleaning at a plant in Mexico City operated by Corona beermaker, Grupo
Modelo.It is believed that four victims
were maintenance contractors and three victims were other Modelo
employees.There are few details
available on the incident.It is
speculated that the deaths were due to “unspecified toxins” and that the three
Modelo employees had entered the tank in an effort to rescue the other four
contract employees.Mexican authorities
are reportedly investigating the incident.

Confined
spaces are or should be clearly recognized in the beer industry.The large numbers of tanks that are entered
for maintenance and cleaning, combined with hazardous atmospheres including carbon
dioxide produced during fermentation, inert atmospheres, and ammonia from refrigeration
systems creates significant confined space entries and hazards.These incidents do not just happen in
foreign countries, and wine makers are also not off the hook when it comes to
confined spaces.A confined space death
occurred just two years earlier at Napa California at Ancien wines when a
worker was overcome by nitrogen and argon gases inside a tank.

Workers
entering into tanks in the beer and wine industries should be intimately
familiar with confined space entry procedures.Even if contractors were always used to perform confined space entry
work, it is unclear why Modelo employees would have entered the tank if they
had been trained to recognize the confined space hazard.The Modelo company has been in operation
since 1925 and is the maker of the number 1 imported beer in the United
States.

This
confined space incident has the largest loss of life in one entry that I am
aware of.While it is not uncommon to
lose 2-3 workers, this incident claimed the lives of 7 workers.Confined space entry hazards continue to
claim lives despite improved recognition of the hazards and despite regulations
and guidelines available to prevent such incidents.

The National
Fire Protection Association is developing a Best Practices document for confined space entry. This document will address gaps
in existing standards and will be more prescriptive in describing things like
how to test the atmosphere in and around confined spaces prior to entry.The NFPA document is looking to go beyond the
minimum standards and to provide those looking to develop a “gold star”
confined space entry program with the information they need to do so.
Please email me at npearce@nfpa.org for further
information and/or leave a comment below for discussion. I look forward
to hearing from you!

Comments

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Agree with both comments. There should be no excuse for entering a brewery tank without a permit. And confined space entry requires 100% diligence. Workers cannot take ANY shortcuts or assume that a confined space is safe.

Since we do not have details, we cannot speculate as to why the workers may have entered without taking precautions. We do not know if they were properly trained. perhaps they tested the atmosphere prior to entry but then used a gas powered washer? Perhaps this was a contractor who was unaware of the confined space hazard? Maybe the Modelo employees who went in to rescue were never made aware of the confined space hazard since the company may have only had contract employees entering the tank? There are so many possibilities for what may have happened. I am hoping we obtain more details at some point. If anyone has further information, please let us know.

I work in a brewery, anyone entering a tank would require a confined space permit, personal atmosphere tester, training in BA rescue equipment(with BA gear nearby), one person stationed outside the tank to monitor. Tanks are caustic cleaned(negates c02) and air purged then isolated prior to entry. Note air purging a horizontal tank without caustic cleaning is ineffective, due to c02 pockets.

I work in the Confined Space Rescue field, the general lack of care given by workers is astounding. I'm not saying it's all the workers fault, but workers need to be trained to recognize hazards. They need to be trained on proper detection methods, and have a rescue crew available and set up. Too many people think that it can't happen to them. In reality, it only takes a few minutes to a few seconds for a normal day to turn into an emergency situation. If those contractors had've had a rescue team on site and set up, this story would have ended much differently. Hopefully companies are beginning to realize that confined spaces require more strict procedures. And that properly trained personnel can, and will save lives.